Just installed Sonar X3 using a Samson mic.
 
Recording voice on the audio track. There's a constant light humming sound in the background.
 
I was told that the Noise Gate plugin would remove it. But what setting will do this? The options are countless.
 
Can anyone help please? 

thanks!

Have you applied the X3d patch? http://www.cakewalk.com/S...reader.aspx/2007013355

Yes. But I need *the settings* for the noise gate to make the background humming go away and still hear my voice.
 
If there's another solution other than the noise gate, I would like to hear it, but when I called CakeWalk tech support, they said use the noise gate. But they couldn't give me any information on what to set it to.
 
Thanks.
 
 
 

There are a variety of solutions to noisy recordings. Sonitus has a couple of EQ settings for 50 and 60 cycle hum, or use a volume envelop or gate. The gate settings depend on the noise itself. Third party products like iZotope RX3 do a good job. Before attempting to fix recorded noise, the best fix is the one that does not need to be done. Fix the source of the noise. If this is a USB microphone, get a different microphone which does not attach via USB would be the answer, possibly a different cable or recording location.

Not going to remove the mic from the usb. that's what the mic is for. 
 
Just need the right noise gate settings. that's what it's for. also, what EQ setting should I set it for? 
 
Surely someone has recorded their voice and gotten rid of the humming using an Samson usb mic. Hoping those folks will see this. thanks!
 
 
 

Scook is right. You need to get rid of the noise at the source. That means stop using a USB mic. A good audio interface with a decent mic wont cost all that much but it will serve you well. 

I understand that using a different mic other than a usb is the easy, quick fix.
 
However, I just bought this usb Samson mic and I love the ease of just plugging it into my computer and using the sonar software to record.
 
CakeWalk told me that the noise gate plugin will resolve the background noise; I just need to know what settings to use for the noise gate. 
 
So I've got my fingers crossed that someone here has used the noise gate with voice recordings (or other recordings) and can tell me what to set all the settings to. Thanks.

I think the tech support person might have been confused - noise gates don't usually remove a specific type of noise from your recording, they just cut out the signal when it drops below a certain level. So, when you're talking, you'll still hear the hum in the background, but when you stop talking, the hum (and all background noise) can be reduced to zero.
 
To set the latter up, you just need to play with the threshold setting on the noise gate, and tweak that to strike a balance - too far in one direction, and it'll cut off your speech, too far in the other direction, and it'll let too much of the noise between sentences through. If the gate offers an "attack" value, set that to the minimum, and if it offers a "release" value, something like 200ms is probably fine.
 
If you want to be able to remove the hum from everything, whether you're speaking or not, the best tool for that - assuming you can't fix it with the microphone - is a parametric equaliser. Use a spectrum analyzer (I forget if Sonar contains one, but SPAN is free if not - http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/) on the channel to see what frequency the humming is at, then use an equaliser to reduce that frequency.

Agree with everybody here 1000%
Maybe this (rather shakey) video will help? http://youtu.be/QyOBq824K5c although it uses a different DAW you might be able to adapt. I sped through it but basically it looks like he is using notch EQ (Sonar equivalent would be quadcurve in the prochannel).
 
Consider buying an SM7B! :)

Start with EQ (hear me out): use the high pass filter, and sweep it to the highest frequency you can without affecting the vocal tone.  This can often kill a hum very effectively. 
 
If there is any hum left, THEN try the gate.  But that's only to kill noise where there is no vocal (between phrases).

1. Focus on the threshold: turn it back and forth slowly to find where it starts dropping your signal's volume between vocal phrases (careful not to kill sibilants, necessary breaths, etc).
2. Then mess with the range/ratio to affect how much it drops your signal.
3. If you want to go deeper, mess with the attack/release to adjust for any weirdness with the gate acting too slowly or quickly (pumping, or too much residue).

There is no "the setting" because they're different for every source.  If you learn the basics, you can apply it to any material.